Our Meaningful and Practical New Year Celebration

Yup, emphasized mga mamshies ang “meaningful and practical” because that is my goal for any celebration.

Of course, a celebration should be meaningful. If not, why do you have to celebrate anyway, isn’t it? And to be meaningful, I am not talking of symbols. Our hearts and souls should be involved.

Second, a celebration for me should be practical. Why?

We are aware that during this time, we cannot afford to waste food or other resources. Everything wasted equates to a value that we can save to be used in other important things.

We need to let go of some cultural beliefs or traditions because they are no longer serving us.

So by being practical, we become good stewards of our material blessings and we can show that the correct mindset will lead us to success (whatever that means to each one) in the year ahead and it doesn’t depend on the rituals we do on New Year’s eve.

So if bet mo ‘to, here are the tips for you:

Buy fruits that your family wants to eat.

A famous Filipino belief is to prepare 12 (sometimes 13) round fruits in welcoming the New Year as a symbol of prosperity. Twelve represents the months in a year, and the round-shaped fruits symbolize coins (money).

But I only bought grapes, kiat-kiat, and lemon added to the bananas my parents gave. And it’s okay.

It’s okay if our fruits didn’t reach 12 because it means we can consume all these fruits before they rot. It means we are not wasting food, and we can buy the same or other fruits once they’re all eaten up.

God is the source of blessings. Ask Him. Lay your requests to Him. Also, He has given us resources to use, such as our talents and skills, that if we are going to put them in good use, we’ll be able to improve our life and the life of those we love.

Cook or order enough food.

I ordered lasagna because that’s my favorite and made siomai and lumpia for the boys. My mother-in-law gave us buko salad, while we spent early dinner at my parents’ enjoying native chicken tinola.

Just like the fruits we bought, I chose to order and cook food that we can consume only in a day or two and enough to be shared with other people.

The sooner we get back to our regular diet, the lesser we complain of the few inches we gained over the holidays–the lesser we trouble ourselves on how to lose them.

Just savor the time you have, at this moment, with your family.

New Year somewhat slows time while we stop and count down as the clock reaches 12 o’clock–a historical event of us bidding goodbye to 2019 and saying hello to 2020.

Yet we know, soon after this celebration, everyone will go back to their own life and probably be caught up again by “busy.” So yes, savor the togetherness whether that be physical or even virtual such as us, an OFW family. Don’t hesitate to show your love.

Share your blessings with those in need.

Know someone whom you want to bless on New Year’s eve?

It’s heartwarming to share food with neighbors who are likely to prepare the same food and would give you another food in return. But we can go the extra mile by sharing or ordering food for someone who probably would need it more, without us expecting anything back at all.

Instead of having a surplus of food, we can redirect our money to buy or cook food for that someone or those people we want to bless with. For sure, they are going to thank God for that gesture–and that would be very wonderful.

Be grateful for God’s faithfulness.

Yes, mamsh. You are already blessed. The fact that you are breathing means God has been faithful to you.

I remember a song saying, “If you are breathing, say thanks!”

No matter how my day goes, it always reminds me to be grateful just to be alive and be human. And I feel more blessed counting the things I have on top of that.

Remember that we are already blessed. More so if we realize the goodness of God. When we realize this, we have no time to make “hisa” (Ilonggo) or “inggit” to other people because you know that each one of us is blessed accordingly. This is then the secret to a content heart.

Lay your requests to God.

Every New Year’s eve since high school, I make special requests to God. I just smile whenever I remember I actually prayed to break our TV because it was distracting me from studying. Haha!

I had those kinds of requests, but then I also had serious ones. Like 11 years ago, I prayed for a man who would love me and I would love him back.

God gave me a husband that same year.

This time, I have another one; it’s so special because it’s for the people I love. And I’m so excited about how He will orchestrate things and events for this. He is such an amazing God, you know.

I used not to care at all and was an impulsive spender, in fact. But I realize that as a mom with two young kids, practicality is important to prepare for their future. How about you? Care to share your tips for a meaningful and practical New Year celebration?